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Dover Castle

Dover Castle is well worth a visit. English Heritage have taken an unusual and effective approach in how to show the Norman core of the castle. They have decorated it in the way that Henry II would have recognised in lush primary colours with hangings and smoking fires. The idea that a king would have lived in the assumed squalour of filthy rushes bespattered with bones thrown from the table was always absurd and Dover gives a more truthful view of the sort of life that a powerful emperor - because that is what he was - would have lived.

Outside the keep and overlooking the harbour is a 'pharos' or Roman lighthouse alongside a Saxon church for which it became a bell tower. I am trying to think of a Roman building still standing in England other than this. There are foundations and parts of more modern buildings which date back to the Romans - but free standing and in reasonable condition? This was one of a pair that guided ships into Dover whatever the weather or time of day.